Car-to-car communications system to get road tested in the US

The US Department of Transportation is to fund a study into car-to-car communication
technology, which could eventually help prevent road accidents.

The University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute
was awarded
$14.9m (£9.2m) to investigate vehicle-to-vehicle and
vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. The system that will be
tested uses short-range radio signals to let cars signal to each
other and receive messages from traffic equipment.

Plenty of "connected cars" have been launched in the last 12
months, for example Ford's EVOS and Audi cars with the connect system. Some have radar, laser
or video sensors to be able to detect vehicles in a driver's blind
spot or to warn the driver when their car is drifting. However,
car-to-car communications could help provide earlier warnings, for
example when there was an accident or sharp braking up
ahead.

The 30-month initiative will establish a real world test site
in (Ann
Arbour) for enabling wireless communications between vehicles
and roadside equipment for use in generating data to enable safety
applications. Around 2,850 vehicles including cars, lorries and
buses will be tested in the study. The data generated will be used
to estimate the safety benefits of this sort of technology to see
whether it should be rolled out.

The University is also partnering with eight car manufacturers
who will supply 64 cars supplied with
the radio equipment and the rest will be fitted with devices to
transmit signals. Test drivers will be recruited from the 20,000
employees at the university's medical centre.

The technology will see each car fitted with radio that signals
the speed and direction of travel, as determined by GPS, to other
cars. It will be tested to see how it fares when warning a driver
if it's unsafe to pass, and when someone is approaching an
intersection at speed.

The US Department of Transport believes that this sort of
technology could address 82 percent of serious crashes.